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seeds Seeds Viable after freezing?

M

martinjgreen

I had the most awesome orange habanero plant. I bought it as an overgrown seedling that was reduced because it had gotten big, and needed repotting etc. I planted it in my garden and all last year got so much in the way of fruit. Sadly, the plant got devoured by possums, but not before I'd rescued a lot of the fruit, and froze it, much of which is still in my freezer.
 
Anyway, I've planted a few of them in a pot, kept well watered and put out in the warm spring Queensland sun (30C outside today) to see if anything comes up, but anyone ever used seeds after freezing? Are they likely to sprout?
 
Should be fine -- might not get a great germination rate as water left in the seeds will have expanded when frozen and might kill some of them, but mother nature ensures there are plenty of seeds in a pod to have some survive a freeze (figure in the wild they fall off the plant and sit through freezing winter temps all the time !) 
 
 I tried germinating a few Aji Pineapple seeds taken from frozen pods and had 0/8 germination. Seeds taken from the same pods that were allowed to dry out rather than frozen had nearly 100% germination. So if If you just threw some fresh pods into the freezer, I would expect germination rates of those seeds to be much lower than if they were allowed to dry out first. If all you have left of that plant's genetics are seeds that were put in the freezer still wet, I would suggest planting a bunch of them to increase your chances. You can always cull the weakest seedlings if you get more than you need.
 
It depedens very much on how dry the seeds are when you freeze them.
 
Really dry seeds will have a good germination ratio. No very well dried seeds will be damaged.
 
They water in a seed is stretching the cells while freezing and is breaking them.
 
I throw fresh pods in the freezer every year. And every year, I have previously frozen seeds that germinate.

The answer is yes, they will grow. Lower germination? I don't know, never paid attention. Sow a few in each start, and watch 'em pop.
 
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